DBN: Dragon Ball Naruto
by mellra
Summary: A collection of one-shot challenges I have with Naruto mixing with the Dragon Ball universe. Contains stories where he's born in the DBZ world, transported there, or elements of said world come to the Narutoverse. Enjoy, Read, Review, and most importantly...ADOPT!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Kishimoto and Toriyama own their respective anime/manga. I do not.

 **AN:** Here's another Naruto/DBZ crossover challenge where Naruto is born in the DBZ universe and is either the younger brother of or best friend of 17 and 18 when they were still human. On the day Dr. Gero tries to abduct the twins, Naruto tries to stop him but is overpowered. Impressed by his fighting spirit, Gero takes Naruto as well. The doctor decides that instead of making him a regular Android like the other two, Naruto will take place in an experiment called Project: Genome.  
Project Genome was the base for Cell but fell through due to not having a suitable test subject. The idea of the project is that by taking a human brain and adding it to a bio-android body, Gero would have the perfect warrior. However, none of the minds used survived the process and so Gero grew Cell from scratch. However, Naruto's brain survives the process and is merged with a bio-android body (that looks like Genome from Dragon Ball Heroes but is orange instead of purple). As such, Naruto has the ability to replicate any attack he sees due to having cells from all the Z Fighters as well as regeneration. Also, like Super 17 Naruto can absorb energy attacks to power up and if he absorbs enough energy he can go into a stronger form for a while (Genome's alternative form).  
Naruto, however, decides to go against the doctor's commands like 17 and 18 and eventually joins the Z Fighters. No planed pairings but that can be discussed at a later date.

This _**CHALLENGE**_ will not be done by me, it is up to whoever wishes to adopt it.

 **Cell's Predecessor**

An elderly man with darkly tanned skin and bushy white hair poured over his notes with a look of contemplation on his face. This man's name is Dr. Gero of the now disbanded Red Ribbon Army. For nearly a decade he'd been plotting his revenge on the person responsible for the evil army's fall, Son Goku. The boy had taken down the army when he had been only twelve years old, a feat that the kingdoms of the world had failed to accomplish. The shame of that defeat spurned the doctor on, hoping to find a way to destroy the boy, now man, and claim the world for his own. His research largely focused on the creation of Androids, humanlike robots with powers far exceeding those of an average human. At first, he'd been working with robotic based Androids but after 16 separate failures, Gero decided to take a different approach. Human based Androids.

He searched all the major cities and finally found possible test subjects; twin punk teens, a boy and a girl, who were living on the streets and showed an aptitude towards both survival and fighting. While Gero would have preferred using a professional martial artist, it would have been much more difficult and time consuming to take one. Finally, he went through with his plans and took the two teens off the street. However, there was an unexpected complication. Apparently the twins had a younger brother, a spunky little thing that fought off the bigger and stronger adult to get his siblings back. Gero was able to subdue the boy and decided to take him as well. Now the question was what to do with the boy?

He considered making him an Android as well, but that idea was not feasible. The child was too young to survive the augmentation process being only 10-11 years of age (1). However, he didn't want that raw determination and strength to go to waste. Then, the metaphorical lightbulb went off in the man's head. Ruffling through his old papers, Dr. Gero pulled out a file titled Project: Genome. The old man gave a menacing grin as he looked through the file.

Project: Genome was something he had started a few years ago as the predecessor to Project: Cell. The idea was he would take the DNA of several of the Earth's mightiest fighters; Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, etc. and create the ultimate body. Then he would implant a brain into the body that was from an already skilled fighter (after being properly modified to follow his command of course), creating a perfect warrior. However, every subject he 'convinced' to do the test couldn't handle the strain and became little more than a vegetable. This is what led him to begin Project: Cell which had the same basic principle as Genome but created the being from scratch, brain and all. This would have been guaranteed to create the perfect being, but it was a slow and tedious process which was why he left that up to the computers to do. Genome, however, would take only a fraction of the time to make. Perhaps…17 and 18's brother could bring it to fruition.

With that, Gero ready to prepare his latest test subject.

 **Several Years Later**

'Wh-where am I? What happened?' a young voice thought as the mind behind the voice drifted through darkness. 'I…remember going out to get some food, and Lapis and Lazuli (2) were gonna go find someplace for us to sleep…then…what?' the voice struggled to remember. He mentally flinched in pain. There were new things in his mind, things that were both telling him things as well as trying to block most of what he already knew. It was like a mental game of tug-of-war, the intrusion against his mind. At first, it felt like the intruder would win, but then the owner of the voice started to overpower it, pulling on nearly unnatural amounts of willpower.

Instead, the boy, for the owner of the voice was male, took the intruder and used it to his will. He stopped the intruder from making him forget, but he took the knowledge for himself. The child learned of things, of Dr. Gero and the Red Ribbon Army, of Son Goku and his friends, about Ki and fighting and…what was done to himself…

His body was no longer _his_ , not the one he was born with at any rate. The body his mind and soul now occupied an artificial being created from the cells of the planets strongest fighters in the hopes to make him into the ultimate weapon. He learned what he was capable of, of what all moves he could use and how to use them. He also learned that the part of the intrusion he overcame was programming Dr. Gero had used to try and make him his obedient slave. It was only due to his strong determination that he was able to overcome it.

'Gero…will pay for this! I need to get out of here and find big sis and bro!' he thought strongly. Sure, their lives weren't great before their abduction; orphaned at a young age and forced to fend for themselves in the slums of the city, but it was their lives to live and this old fossil decided to take that away from them simply for his petty revenge! He wouldn't stand for it! Then he found his body started to get lighter, which could only mean one thing: he was waking up.

 **Scene Shift**

Dr. Gero grinned maliciously as he prepped 17 and 18 for awakening. While his initial plan to take himself and 19 to dispose of the Z Fighters hadn't gone according to plan, he was more than sure the twin Androids would crush the annoying insects! Granted, when he'd first tried awakening the two they had been less than cooperative. Apparently the programing that was to erase their previous memories hadn't fully taken, erasing only certain aspects of their previous lives such as their names, and it left the ungrateful brats feeling resentful of his generosity. So he placed the two into stasis until it was time to awaken them again, and hopefully their programming would take this time. Granted it was a risk, but one he was willing to take.

Though now that he thought of it, it may be beneficial to start Project: Genome as well. While he was untested, the doctor was sure if the Androids didn't kill the pathetic warriors Genome would. Turning to the human sized tube located on the far end of the room, Gero pressed the release button. The liquid in the tube filtered out and the glass lowered, showing the being within.

The figure stood roughly the size of 17 and 18, around 5'4", and was human shaped. However, while the being had some human characteristics, it was largely insect in nature. The body was covered in an exoskeleton that was orange in color while parts like the shoulders were black as were the long wings extending from its back. On its mouth was a leathery beaklike mouthpiece while there were horn like protrusions on both sides of the bio-gem located on the top of his head. The visible flesh was chalk white on the hands, feet, and face. The feet only had three long toes, two on the front and one on the back while the hands had five human like fingers. All digits had small, sharp black nails. Finally, on his chest was tattooed the Red Ribbon Army's logo. Genome's eyes snapped open as the last of the liquid fell off its body, showing clear blue eyes (3).

Genome stepped down from the pedestal he was on silently, staring at his body in what looked like contemplation. The scientist stepped forward, a triumphant grin present. "Ah Genome, so glad to see you awake. I was unsure at first if you'd be able to fully awaken, but it seems that there were no complications. Now we must wait for your siblings to awake as well, you have work to do."

Genome remained silent as he stopped inspecting his body and looked to Gero, an unreadable look on his face. Just then, the two pods that were activated hissed open. The first to open showed a young man that had black hair, an orange bandana tied around his neck, a black tee shirt over a white long sleeve, ripped jeans held up by a gun belt, long green socks and blue shoes. The other is a girl with blond hair done similar to the boy's with a long sleeved black and white striped shirt with a blue vest on top, black pants, and brown boots. They looked very similar to each other besides this and they both had piercing blue eyes, gold hoop earrings, and finally a Red Ribbon logo on their shirts.

The two Androids exchange glances and notice the remote held in Gero's hands, the very same that could deactivate them. They then noticed the stoic looking Genome but decided to focus on the matter at hand. Both Androids give respectful greetings to the doctor which leaves him mildly surprised but pleased that it looked as though their programming finally took. He then proceeded to tell them that there were powerful fighters at the door that had already destroyed Android 19 and crippled the man turned Android himself.

17 spoke, "It will be our pleasure doctor, but first," he turned and pointed at Genome before continuing, "who's the bug man?"

Gero smirked and said, "That is Project: Genome. He is a bio-android I created shortly after you two. In some ways his power could easily rival your own, so I'm confident you can eradicate the vermin outside with no difficulty."

17 scoffed, "Yeah right doc, you made sure I was your strongest creation so I'm betting this guy's a pushover." He then looked over to Genome and gave a challenging grin. "What do yah say, bug boy? Wanna go a round and see who's stronger?"

Gero got irritated at this and stepped forward. "That's enough 17! I didn't awaken you all to have a childish brawl in my lab, so go out there and – huh?" he finished with a grunt of confusion as the remote he was holding was suddenly swiped by a now smirking 18.

Turning to the blonde girl Gero fumed, "18, what are you doing?! Give me that this instant!" Still smirking, 18 crushed the remote as one would a soda can. "18!" Gero cried out in anger and a bit of panic.

Just then, the door to the lab was blasted off its hinges. After the smoke cleared, an assorted group of fighters stood in the doorway. The bald monk Krillin, the triclops Tien, the Namekian Piccolo, the Saiyan Prince Vegeta, and his time traveling son Trunks, the latter of whom was staring at the group of Androids in horror. Tien turned to Trunks and asked, "So, are these the Androids you mentioned?"

Trunks gulped and said, "Y-yeah, that's them. Although…I don't know what that bug thing is."

Vegeta snorted, "Who cares, they'll all fall just the same!"

Dr. Gero meanwhile was cursing up a storm. This was literally the worst possible scenario! The Z Fighters (all of whom were stronger than his initial calculations predicted) were at his doorstep and two of his creations were obviously rebelling. Just like that it hit him. Turning to the bio-android, Gero cried out, "Genome! Destroy them all!"

However, the bug like warrior just watched him impassively. Desperately, Gero once again cried out, "Genome, as your creator I command you to take out all these pests at once! Obey me!"

"My name isn't Genome…" he (for it was the voice of a young boy he spoke with) said quietly.

"What was that? Stop dawdling Genome and destroy them you useless prototype!" Gero yelled almost hysterically.

Genome's eyes flashed dangerously as a scowl adorned his beaklike mouth and he spoke in an angry roar, "I said, MY NAME ISN'T GENOME YOU OLD FOSSIL!"

With that, he drew his arm back and made a slashing motion causing a narrow wave of Ki to shoot out like a guillotine. The wave caught the surprised doctor under the chin, loping his head clean off. This action caught everyone off guard, with only 17 and 18 being able to mask their surprise. Gero's head bounced along the ground until it landed in front of the Z Fighters.

Gero's head crocked out, "You…miserable brats! I created…you and this…is how you repay me?!"

In a motion almost too fast to follow, 17 leapt into the air and came down hard on the man's head, ending the scientist's life. Smirking, the male Android straightened up and turned to the bio-android. "Looks like I misjudged you, bug-man. Looks like you're alright after all!" he said idly as he walked back over to his sister.

"Don't call me that," said bug-man snapped back, but unlike with Gero his tone wasn't biting. "And don't call me Genome either. My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I'da figured you'd realized that by now, even though I look different bro."

18 looked amused and said, "Heh, you seem chatty all of a sudden. And what's with that familiar tone? Neither of us have ever met as far as I'm concerned. What kind of name is Naruto anyway? Genome sounds way better than fishcake anyway."

The now named Naruto looked to the girl in confusion. "Do you…not remember? (4)" he asked hesitantly.

Before either sibling could respond, Vegeta finally lost what little patience he had. "Enough of this foolishness!" he yelled before sending out a strong blast of Ki at the group.

Acting quickly, Naruto moved in front of the blast. He knew that none of the Androids would be hurt by the blast, but he wanted to try one of his new body's functions. The Ki attack connected, but instead of exploding like it normally would, the energy seemed to be _absorbed_ into Naruto's skin. As this was happening, Naruto felt a satisfying rush of power as his muscles momentarily swelled to the size of a bodybuilder's before compressing back down to normal (5). Letting out a content sigh, Naruto then narrowed his eyes at the self-proclaimed 'Prince of All Saiyans'.

"Do you mind? We're in the middle of a conversation here you spikey haired jackass!" Naruto growled.

As said spikey haired jackass fumed, Krillin panicked, "Watch out guys! That guy can absorb energy as well!"

After giving the monk a look that said, 'No shit Sherlock,' the bio-android turned to the other two and said, "Come on, let's go somewhere quiet. I think the three of us are going to have a lot to discuss."

The twins looked at each other before 17 shrugged, "Eh, why not? Might kill some time, then maybe we can go after Goku for some fun."

"Hold up," 18 said as she noticed a third pod in the room with the number 16 on the cover, "I wanna wake this guy up. If Gero thought keeping him locked up while letting us free was a good idea, I'd bet we'd get along with this guy just fine."

The two boys had no problem with that and gave her the go ahead, but one member of the Z Fighters strongly disagreed with her decision making.

"If they let that Android free it will be the end of all of us!" Trunks cried before going to Super Saiyan and firing an even larger Ki blast than his father with a shout of, "NOOOO!"

Fortunately Trunks was able to think clearly even in his panic and aimed his blast far away from the energy absorbing Naruto, instead aiming for 18 herself as she got ready to unlock the pod. The wave detonated in an explosive force, causing the lab around them to go up in a giant fireball. When the smoke started to clear, the lab was nothing more than a pile of rubble with the Z Fighters looking at it within a safe distance. However, as the rest of the smoke cleared it showed Naruto, 17, and 18 were unharmed and that the pod containing 16 was being held by the blonde girl.

"This is going to be harder than I thought," Tien muttered as he watched the three creations hover over the destroyed lab.

1\. He'll be the same age as Gohan.

2\. This is 17 and 18's actual names according to canon.

3\. Picture Genome's initial form just orange instead of purple and blue eyes.

4\. The programming for 17 and 18, while imperfect, did take out a big chunk of their memories I assume. Otherwise they would call each other by name and not their call numbers.

5\. Think what Super 17 did in Dragon Ball GT, except Naruto doesn't need to hold still to do so.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own either the Dragon Ball or Naruto franchises.

 **AN:** So I have two ideas for a Naruto/DBZ crossover that are similar at the beginning but split into two parts. I wasn't crazy about the plot of Dragon Ball GT, but I did like them bringing certain factors in like SS4 and the Great Ape Transformation. One of the other things I really enjoyed was the Shadow Dragons, specifically Rage and Naturon. So my ideas go like this:  
After the Fourth Shinobi War, Naruto dies from his injuries but not before bringing peace to the Elemental Nations. He does this by using Asura Mode to absorb the remaining negative emotions from the planet into himself. This in turn causes his soul to go into a dormant state where it seals up the negative energy away from the world. This mutates Naruto's soul, and eventually it finds itself drawn into a large gathering of energy, which turns out to be the formation of the Dragon Balls. Years pass, and as the negative energy, still bound by Naruto's goodness, grows with each passing wish, it eventually breaks free when it gets too much for the Dragon Balls to handle, forming one of the Shadow Dragons. However, with Naruto's good soul still bound to it, the dragon actually becomes good as well as a result and joins with the Z Fighters. Also, due to Naruto's soul being an anchor for the dragon's, they don't need the Dragon Ball attached to exist. This is where the story diverges.

1\. The dragon is Naturon Shenron, brought about by wishing those killed by King Piccolo back to life (in canon it was to revive those killed by Majin Vegeta but I don't want to wait for the freaking Buu saga to start this idea). Like Naturon, Naruto can absorb bodies to become stronger and gain new attacks. However, Naruto won't use this as a cure all solution to his fights only as a last resort. For example, if he absorbs the body of a mole like canon Naturon did, Naruto will actually train in that form until he has it mastered, only switching bodies if there is no alternative. He'd even train his wimpy original form so he can actually do damage when not absorbing someone. He'd show up during the 23rd Martial Arts Tournament in order to challenge Piccolo. He winds up fighting and beating Shen/Kami as well as Piccolo, but ties with Goku. Naruto offers to absorb Piccolo to keep him out of trouble, but Goku sensing Piccolo isn't as evil as his father, lets him go like in canon.

2\. The dragon Naruto becomes is instead Rage Shenron, brought about by wishing Goku back to life for the Saiyan Saga. Like canon Rage, Naruto can use electric slime and also get bigger by absorbing electric energy. However, Naruto will be a bit more strategic about it and actually figure out more offensive strategies with his electric attacks, possibly using them to recreate Lightning Jutsu such as the Chidori. Also, this version of Rage will be aware of his weakness to water and ask Bulma for help with that. Bulma in turn will figure out a chemical that Naruto can use that will make him less combustible with water, and can even use the lightning from rainstorms to power himself up. He'd join up with Goku just as he's taking on Vegeta and help him beat the Saiyan Prince. I can even see Naruto using his ability to get bigger to match Vegeta's Great Ape form.

 _ **CHALLENGE:**_ noun, a call to take part in a contest or competition. AKA, I'm asking if anyone else wants to do this story because I can't even though I want to.

 **Naruto the Shadow Dragon**

Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuriki to the Nine Tailed Fox, son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, reincarnation of the youngest child of the Sage of the Six Paths, and hero of the Fourth Shinobi War, was dying. After a long and difficult battle involving the blonde and his allies fighting numerous reanimated ninja, White Zetsu clones, Obito Uchiha, Madara Uchiha, and finally the demoness Kaguya, Naruto's body was finally succumbing to his injuries and exhaustion. It was only due to both his status, bloodline, and stubborn personality that he'd held on this long as most people would have succumbed long ago. Unfortunately, everyone has a limit and Naruto has both reached and surpassed his. With what little strength he had left, Naruto said farewell to all of his friends and companions, encouraging them to move on without him to bring about a better world and by the end of it all there wasn't a dry eye to be scene. Confident that the world was in capable hands, Naruto passed with no regrets, but he did give the world one last gift.

Utilizing his abilities as a sage, as well as the powers of Asura, Naruto's soul was able to live on after his body gave out. His disembodied soul then went around the planet, picking up any lingering negative energy that remained from the past few centuries of violence and bloodshed, taking them into himself to ensure that the world will be at peace at long last, fulfilling his role as the Child of Prophecy. Naruto's soul then took the negative energy along with itself deep within the Earth to make sure nothing else like the Shinobi World Wars ever happens again, and peace reigned throughout the world. Years passed, and the Elemental Nations prospered. No longer focusing on militant applications, the people were able to focus on other pursuits such as improving the technology in the world. Eventually the usage of both shinobi and chakra grew out of fashion in times of peace, and the Hidden Villages became bustling metropolises. The Bijuu, feeling that their presence may at one point disturb the peace the humans had, decided to go off to parts unknown and no one saw them for many, many years. People began to use technology more than chakra as it was easier and more available to use. Soon most forgot the old, violent ways with people only speaking of ninjas as myths and legends, only a few holding onto some of the shinobi way. While chakra itself fell out of use, people did still utilize the physical aspects of it from time to time, usually those heavily involved in the martial arts, but it gained a new name: ki.

Throughout all this, Naruto's soul remained nestled in the Earth, absorbing any buildups of negative energy to prevent it from harming humanity. Then, one day everything changed. A new guardian for the Earth, called Kami, had decided to make seven magical orbs called Dragon Balls that, when gathered, could grant a person one wish. He used powerful abilities to create the Dragon Balls, many of which were connected to the Earth itself. Said powers were like a beacon to Naruto's wandering soul like it was Nature Chakra, drawing it in like a magnet. As the Dragon Balls were created, the negative energy Naruto's soul was distributed amongst them but the majority held onto the ninja's soul as it was sucked into one of the orbs. Years pass, people using the wish granting abilities to make their fondest wish come true. Some wishes were for beneficial reasons, others evil, and others completely ridiculous. With each wish, the negative energy in them grew stronger, especially in the Dragon Ball containing Naruto and the majority of the negative energy. Finally, one day the negative energy in Naruto's Dragon Ball overflowed and took shape, which is where our story truly takes place.

 **(Divergent Point – Naturon Shenron)**

Son Goku, the current hero of the planet Earth, had finally defeated the great evil known as Demon King Piccolo. The monkey tailed boy, at only 15 years old, had gone on many strange and wonderful adventures, most focusing on the magical wish granting Dragon Balls. However, the Demon King was his most difficult opponent to date and his victory came at a cost; his friend Krillian, his master Roshi, and many other fighters were killed by Piccolo and his minions during the struggle. Even the Eternal Dragon Shenron was destroyed by the monster. After Piccolo's defeat, Goku was determined to find a way to save his friends and sought out the creator of the Dragon Balls Kami in order to wish those killed by King Piccolo back. This seemingly innocent wish is what caused the negative energy trapped within the Seven Star Ball, along with the soul of the Earth's previous hero, to be released.

After the balls had scattered once they were used to revive the victims of Piccolo, if one were to find the stone ball that was once the Seven Star Ball they would see black smoke start to leak out of it. The smoke condensed into a small cloud over the ball, getting denser and denser before it started to take shape. Once the smoke cleared, a strange creature was seen standing with the stone Dragon Ball at it's feet.

The creature is small, brown, and pig like with black horns pointing out the back of his head and a thick reptilian tail. It also has long claws on its fingers and toes and walks in a bipedal fashion. Giving a huge yawn while stretching out his arms, the being that housed the soul of Naruto Uzumaki took in his surroundings with growing confusion.

"What happened? Wasn't I dead? And…why does my voice sound weird?" Naruto questioned as he looked around, noting his voice sounded different than he remembered. It was then he noticed that he stood about as tall as the small bushes around him, causing him to act accordingly. "AND WHY THE HELL AM I A PIPSQUEAK?!" He sobbed out while getting on his hands and knees, a cloud of depression over his head.

After pulling himself out of his momentary funk, he noticed something was off about his body. Naruto noticed that his body was noticeably chubbier than before, as well as covered in light brown skin and his hands and feet had sharp claws instead of fingers. Noticing a lake nearby, Naruto ran over to it (noticing his running was a LOT more awkward than it was before thanks to his squat legs) and looked into the reflective surface of the water. He stared at his animalistic face for a few minutes before he crossed his arms, squinted his eyes, and nodded to himself.

"Alright, I must be dreaming! That's gotta be it, though (gurgle) I didn't know you could get hungry in your dreams," Naruto practically giggled to himself, thinking he had it all figured out. He then looked across the small lake and noticed an apple tree near the bank. Grinning he said, "Well, if I eat food in my dreams then I shouldn't be hungry in them, yeah?" he reasoned as he got ready to cross the lake to get to the fruit. However, instead of walking across the surface like he could do in life, Naruto found himself falling face first into icy cold water.

He came up sputtering, "GACK! THAT'S SUPER COLD!" the transformed ninja then swam across the lake like a bullet (though a lot more awkwardly than he could before) and came up onto the shore shivering. "…OK, maybe this isn't a dream…but what does this all mean?" he pondered as he tried to dry himself off. Naruto thought hard on what the heck was happening to him, but his growling stomach halted his thinking process. Figuring he'd be able to concentrate better with a full stomach, Naruto once again turned his attention to the apple trees. Channeling his energy once more, Naruto went to the tree to walk up it to get to the out of reach food.

Unfortunately for the boy, this attempt was met with as much failure as his water walking attempt, causing him to fall backwards right on his head. "OW! OK, DEFINITELY NOT DREAMING!" Naruto yelped as he rolled around on the dirt clutching his aching skull. He then sits up and nurses the bump on his head. "Man, this day just keeps getting better. If only I had an audience watching then this would be just perfect!" Naruto spat as he got back up. Spying the fruit that was so close yet oh so far away, Naruto sighed before looking at his now clawed hands. A lightbulb seemed to go off in his mind and the changed ninja then used the sharp digits to scale up the side of the tree. Reaching the branches, Naruto was able to plop down on one of them and grabbed a decent sized apple before happily munching away on it.

After he had his fill, Naruto then began to seriously think about his situation. "OK Naruto, think: you're in unknown territory, your body has been changed somehow, and for some reason you can't seem to use chakra. So how did this happen and where do I go from here?" he mused as he went over what he knew. Going back to his Sage training, Naruto started to meditate to see if he could gather his thoughts and maybe remember how all this happened. As he meditated, flashes of what has happened since his sealing went through his mind, forming a picture to his situation.

Opening his eyes, Naruto looked at his pawlike hands. "So the world doesn't know about chakra anymore and instead uses an energy called Ki…I was 'born' again when the Dragon Balls I was sealed in gained too much negative energy…and the world I once lived in has completely changed," he thought out loud before a sweatdrop formed on his head. "If anyone told me that, I'd think they were a few ramen noodles short of a bowel. Either that or someone was forcibly trying to write me into the plot of some adventure story. Still though," he looked at his hands again as they gained a faint glow, "it looks like my chakra was replaced with Ki, but it doesn't feel like mine is really strong. I wonder if I can use it like I saw those other guys use like Goku or Tien or that creepy King Piccolo? Only one way to find out I guess…"

Naruto looked down at the ground beneath him that, while not too far away was still a distance for his smaller form so it would definitely hurt if he fell. Focusing his Ki energy like he saw Tien and Piccolo do, Naruto took a deep breath and hopped off the branch he was on. Instead of plummeting like a stone, Naruto hovered in the air like a feather. Noticing he wasn't falling, Naruto looked down and saw he was flying, causing a grin to adorn his animalistic face.

"WOO-HOO! Awesome I can fly!" Naruto cheered as he attempted to fly around. Attempted being the key word as his efforts almost looked like a newborn turkey trying to fly. Still, Naruto was psyched on being able to go through the air like old man Tsuchikage. Sensing he was losing balance, Naruto shakily lowered himself to the ground with a soft 'plop.' "Now let's see…" Naruto started as he gathered his Ki into his palm. The energy glowed a bright yellow color before a small ball formed in his palm like a Rasengan but weaker looking. Giving a flick of his wrist, Naruto sent the energy blast over to a different tree. There was a small explosion when it made contact, but when the smoke cleared it showed the tree was largely undamaged.

Giving a disappointed sigh at how weak he now was, Naruto started to walk off while pondering his next move. "Alright, I'm here now so there's no real point on pondering the 'what ifs' on what happened. The best thing I can do is to try to protect this world like I did before. Maybe I can help that Goku kid, he seemed like an okay guy. Kinda like how I was back in the day…wow that made me sound old, never saying that again. My biggest problem though is I don't really have a strong grasp on how Ki works, and this new body is really weak compared to how I was before so the stuff I do know won't help much. Maybe I should look for a sensei to get me back to my old strength and help me figure out more of that 'Ki' stuff. And I really need to stop talking to myself."

Naruto then started going over his options on who could possibly want to train him as he was now. His first thought went to Kami, the creator of the Dragon Balls. The only problem with that was he lived on a Lookout far above the Earth's surface. Not only was Naruto unsure if his mediocre flying abilities would allow him to get that high, but he also knew from his most recent memories that the Guardian of Earth was currently training Goku to take on the last spawn of King Piccolo in three years time. The latter of which was something he himself hoped to be ready for when the time came but wasn't sure how he'd be able to get his pathetic body to that level without any of his old techniques. Maybe he'd be able to find a way to use Ki to replicate some of his chakra techniques? Though that brought him back to square one on finding a teacher. Finally he remembered seeing that pervy old man, Roshi, who was supposedly a martial arts master. While Naruto was skeptical on being taught by another old pervert, he figured that if he wanted to at least learn the basics of Ki then the Turtle Hermit was his best bet.

So with a goal in mind, the reborn shinobi headed out, hoping to find some civilization where he could find some clue as to where Roshi was at. He walked through the woods for three days, stopping only to eat, sleep, and do his business. Along the way he'd try to use his Ki more to see if he could strengthen it and maybe see if he could replicate some of his old chakra moves. Unfortunately his success was limited, because while Ki was similar to chakra in how it flowed through the body there were several differences. One of the big ones was that Ki was less versatile than chakra. While chakra could be used to shape the very elements, Ki was limited to augmenting the user's body and projecting it in blasts. Another difference was that Ki wasn't as closely linked to the body's life force as chakra was, and while some attacks like the Ki Ko Ho used the users lifeforce, the energy itself was less of a mix of spiritual and physical energies, relying more on the physical realm. So while Ki was powerful in its own right, it was just too different from chakra for Naruto to get a complete grasp of naturally. That didn't stop him from trying though. He'd sometimes fly to get a better grasp of it (he'd moved from baby turkey to wounded duck in ability) and would try to strengthen his Ki blasts by targeting random objects in the forest (he could now leave a slight scorch mark on them but would only hurt as much as a bee sting when used on a living being). It wasn't much, but it was progress.

On the third day, Naruto was kneeling beside a river that ran through the forest while taking a drink. He was confident he'd find civilization soon, maybe in another day or two. Suddenly, Naruto picked up a rustling noise from a nearby bush.

"Hello?" the Shadow Dragon called out hesitantly, hoping a hiker or something was passing through the area and could point him in the right direction. "I'm kinda lost, so I'd really appreciate any help you could give me. I won't hurt you I…swear…gulp!" Naruto trailed off as what came out of the woods wasn't a human being but a wolf pack. The leader was an impressive specimen, around Akamaru's adult height with a scar over one eye while the other members of the pack closely flanked him. Judging from their drooling mouths and hungry eyes, they hadn't eaten in a while…and Naruto was in their territory…and he probably looked like a tasty snack…uh oh.

"Um…nice wolves uh, you don't wanna eat me I taste terrible, ask anyone!" Naruto laughed nervously as he backed away from the snarling wolves. Noticing that he was being closed in, Naruto panicked. With a shout, he sent a Ki blast right into the leader's face. The wolf yelped, but quickly started to growl angrily as he and the other wolves continued to advance. Naruto paled and he gulped, "Oh…crap."

Turning, he quickly tried to fly away. While his flying still wasn't overly graceful, it was still enough that he was able to gain a bit of distance on the pursuing pack. Turning, Naruto gave a sigh of relief. "Man, that was a close – OW!" he yelped as his head collided with a tree that was in his path. He plummeted to the ground where he lay for a second before sitting up and rubbing the newly formed lump on his head. "Ugh, note to self: look where you are flying, you idiot."

Before Naruto could completely recover his bearings however, the wolf pack caught up with him and the carnivores quickly surrounded the tiny dragon. Naruto started to sweat nervously and before he could try to take off again, the lead wolf leapt at him with his claws and fangs bared. Naruto screamed in fright as he closed his eyes, wondering after all he's gone through if this was how it would end; with him becoming some wolf's snack. As the wolf made contact with him, however, a defense mechanism was activated deep within Naruto's subconscious. Instead of striking flesh like he was expecting, the scarred wolf's paws sank into Naruto's body like it was made of quicksand. The wolf yelped in confusion as his legs also started to sink into the strange creature's body, and he quickly tried to back away but it was too late. In a matter of moments, the entire wolf was absorbed into the Shadow Dragon.

Naruto's body in response starts to swell outwards as it takes on a grayish color. The other wolves start to back up in both confusion and fear as both their leader was gone and suddenly the thing they saw as prey was becoming larger by the second. Soon, Naruto's new form was revealed. In shape he was similar to his previous form but he was now gray in color and his claws had become black. The whiskers on his face had lengthened, resembling his old birthmarks somewhat, while his muzzle has lengthened and his muscles have become more pronounced. The most noticeable change, however, was his height as he was now around 50 feet tall. Also, if one were to look closely, they'd see what looked like a scar tattoo over his one eye (1).

Naruto was confused after a few moments of silence as not only did he feel no pain from being mauled, but his body was coursing with power that he hadn't felt since he first unlocked Sage Mode. Cracking an eye open to see what was going on, Naruto was shocked to see that he was now eye level with most treetops. Looking down, Naruto noticed that not only had his body changed but now he easily towered over the wolves that had hunted him minutes ago!

Giving a grin on his muzzle, Naruto brought a massive foot forward and stomped hard on the ground, causing a miniature earthquake that had the wolves scrambling. Looking up at the behemoth, the wolves could only quake in fear. Naruto crossed his arms confidently in front of himself and simply ordered, "Get lost."

With that, the wolves bolted with only dust clouds showing they were there. Naruto gave a rumbling laugh before getting serious. Looking over his changed body once more, he asked aloud in confusion, "How'd this happen? One moment I'm a pipsqueak about to become a chew toy, the next I'm big enough to squash a house! And my Ki feels weird…stronger than before but with something else."

Looking down at a large boulder, Naruto fired a blast of Ki at it. Unlike before, his attack went up in a huge fireball that reduced the boulder to pebbles (2). He looked to the now smoking crater in surprise, that was definitely stronger than before! Again though, his Ki felt weird. It almost felt like when he would borrow Kurama's chakra but not quite. Thinking that it might work on the same principle, the newly formed giant got into a meditative position and concentrated on his inner mind. When Naruto next opened his eyes, he was surprised at what he saw. Instead of the familiar sewer or blank space of his mindscape, he was surrounded what almost looked like purple gummy spider webs.

Looking down he noticed he was in his smaller, less powerful form. Navigating his way through the webs, he noticed a space where they all seemed to converge. When he reached the point he was shocked to discover the wolf leader from earlier all tangled up in the webs! The wolf itself seemed out cold, and the webs around it seemed to hum with power. Briefly grasping one of the treads, Naruto confirmed that the web was taking Ki from the wolf and adding it to the walls that represented Naruto's body. Sitting down, Naruto pondered what this meant. After a few hours of thinking (which was only a few seconds in the real world), he was able to come up with a theory.

"Back when that wolf attacked me, I felt my body react somehow like it knew what to do. Maybe its some kind of way to protect me and give me strength by putting a person, animal, whatever, into my body and taking its Ki to add to my own. But I feel way stronger than the wolf did so…maybe my body has some kind of function that multiplies that strength? Agh, I wish Shikamaru was here, he was good at figuring out this kind of crap!" he momentarily ranted before continuing. "It doesn't feel like this hurts the being I have in me, so maybe this ability kind of lets me become a jinchuriki to anything?" He frowned. "I…don't want to rely on other people's strength like this, but maybe I can use this to my advantage. Like, if I found a really bad but strong guy and trapped them in here, I would both be taking out a threat and making myself stronger to take on other threats! Yeah, that could work!" Turning to the wolf he said in an apologetic tone, "Sorry wolfie, but it looks like you're sticking around for a while. Don't worry though; as soon as I'm able to I'll release you."

With that, Naruto went back to the real world and found himself in his giant form again. "Well, now its time to go looking for Roshi again!" Naruto announced with a grin before he frowned. "Really gotta stop talking to myself," he muttered before stomping off into the wood with his determination to find the old master renewed.

 **One Week Later**

Master Roshi was reclining in a beach chair outside Kame House while wearing his favorite Hawaiian shirt and shorts, his turtle shell and staff placed on the ground beside him. It had been nearly two weeks since Goku defeated King Piccolo and the Dragon Balls were used to revive himself and those killed by the Demon. Currently, Goku himself was training under Kami according to Shenron and his three friends Yamcha, Krillin, Tien, and Chiaotzu were doing their own training as well so they could meet up at the next World Martial Arts Tournament in three years. The old master had decided it was time to enjoy his retirement as he was confident that the current generation had already surpassed him and was ready to defend the Earth when the need arises. So far it was just him, Turtle, and Launch living on his island paradise while Bulma and the others decided to go back to the city for now.

Roshi gave a content sigh and contemplated what to do next. Should he take a nap and enjoy this glorious weather, watch a few workout videos starring his favorite sexy models, or try and peek on Launch while she changes and hope she doesn't sneeze? He could always –

"Mm? What's that sound?" he muttered as his old but still sharp ears picked up a whistling sound. It almost sounded as if a large object was flying through the air at fast speeds. Squinting his eyes behind his sunglasses, Roshi made out a small speck in the distant sky that seemed to be moving. Soon, the speck grew larger and larger as the object got closer. Roshi got up from his chair and grabbed his staff and shell, preparing himself for anything as the object wasn't shaped like any plane he'd ever seen.

With a burst of speed, the object landed hard on the beach a short distance from Roshi, kicking up a cloud of dust. As the dust cleared to reveal the figure that landed, Roshi's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"My…you're a big fella, ain'tcha?" he commented idly while on the inside he was sweating a bit. This figure, which looked like a giant gray mole or pig, was easily as big as Goku was when he turned into that giant ape monster during his first tournament! If the creature turned out to be hostile, he'd be hard pressed to defeat it. So much for enjoying his retirement!

"Are you Master Roshi?" the creature asked in a deep, rumbling voice.

"I am, and what can I do for you?" Roshi asked cautiously, keeping an eye open in case of attack.

Instead, the giant grinned and said happily, "Oh thank all that is Ramen! I've been searching for nearly a week for you now and you wouldn't believe all the hoops I've had to get through! Seriously, it was such a pain when those cities I went to started shooting at me before I could even ask about you! Anyway…" the creature calmed down a bit before surprising the old man when he (Roshi assumed it was male) got down on his knees and bowed before he said in a sincere tone, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I would like to become your apprentice. Will you accept? (3)"

If Roshi wasn't surprised before he most definitely was now. Schooling his emotions, Roshi inquired, "Well now, that's certainly an interesting request. I figured a big guy like yourself wouldn't need any extra strength, most tend to think that is enough. Why do you want to be trained by me?"

Naruto lifted his head and answered, "I've recently been able to unlock my Ki, but I'm not well trained in it. Plus, while I'm pretty strong naturally, I want to learn how to better improve myself so I can protect those who can't protect themselves. I heard about you and how you are one of the best martial arts masters alive, so I thought if anyone could help me, it's you." He had been thinking of how to answer a question like that since he started out on his journey and figured this was the best answer he could come up with without going into full detail.

Roshi used his honed senses and could tell this 'Naruto Uzumaki' was telling the truth, though it did feel that he was hiding something. Well, he wasn't one to pry as he'd taught people for less noble sounding reasons than this creature gave. Heck, he taught Goku just because he knew the boy's grandfather and that he wanted to get stronger for the sake of getting stronger. It was rare to have people say they want to help others right off the bat. Still though, he wished to test this beast's resolve and decided to play hard to get.

Roshi waved a dismissive hand and said, "Sorry my boy, but I'm retired. Plus I don't think you'd be able to handle my training, it's quite difficult you know!"

Naruto gained a resolved look in his eyes. "I don't care how tough your training is, I'll go through it no matter what and I never go back on my word! Please teach me sensei!" he asked while bowing again.

Roshi mentally grinned. This one had determination. That was good, it would serve him well in the long run. Still, one more push wouldn't hurt. Turning away he said, "Nope. My mind is made up, go bother someone else."

If he was looking he would have noticed the mischievous glint in the dragon's eyes. Pulling out a small (relative to his size) pile of papers from…somewhere, Naruto tossed them in front of the hermit. Roshi looked down and noticed the front page had this printed on it; Make-Out Paradise the manuscript. Curious, Roshi picked up the papers and started to read through them. He had barely gone through two pages when he blushed and gained a torrential nosebleed. Dabbing his nose with a tissue, Roshi turned to a smug looking Naruto with a lecherous grin.

"I take it you like? I have two other volumes on me that that can be yours if you train me," Naruto stated, mentally patting himself on the back for having the foresight to write down all he remembered from Jiraiya's works to act as an incentive for the other super pervert. It was a pain writing on an old typewriter with claws the size of tree trunks, but it would hopefully be worth it.

Trying to regain his composure (and failing due to the huge blush on his face and the pieces of tissue shoved up his nose), Roshi declared, "After careful consideration, I have decided to accept your request for training. I hope you're ready though Naruto, because it will most likely be some of the hardest training you have ever done in your life!"

Naruto gave a huge smile and shot the man a thumbs(claws?) up before saying boldly, "I wouldn't have it any other way sensei, Believe it!"

1\. Think Naturon Shenron's mole absorbed form but gray in color and with a scar like mark above one eye.

2\. Naruto will be able to use all of Naturon Shenron's techniques no matter what form he takes, as well as learning new techniques later on from the Z Fighters.

3\. I know this sounds a bit out of character for Naruto, but I figure he learned a bit about showing respect to people in power when you are making a request for them. Biggest example of this is when he begged A to spare Sasuke. Trust me, it won't be common behavior.

 **AN2:** Just a reminder to you all that this is a challenge (though there is a chance I may try it in the far future) and as such I ask that either you or a friend of yours considers to adopt this. I will post one more challenge (the second part of this one) and then I'll get back to writing my main stories. My family will be on vacation from Sunday to Saturday, so my writing will be limited, but I will hopefully be ready to get back into the swing of things as soon as I get back. Till then, READ, REVIEW, and ADOPT!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own either the Dragon Ball or Naruto franchises.

 **AN:** So I have two ideas for a Naruto/DBZ crossover that are similar at the beginning but split into two parts. I wasn't crazy about the plot of Dragon Ball GT, but I did like them bringing certain factors in like SS4 and the Great Ape Transformation. One of the other things I really enjoyed was the Shadow Dragons, specifically Rage and Naturon. So my ideas go like this:  
After the Fourth Shinobi War, Naruto dies from his injuries but not before bringing peace to the Elemental Nations. He does this by using Asura Mode to absorb the remaining negative emotions from the planet into himself. This in turn causes his soul to go into a dormant state where it seals up the negative energy away from the world. This mutates Naruto's soul, and eventually it finds itself drawn into a large gathering of energy, which turns out to be the formation of the Dragon Balls. Years pass, and as the negative energy, still bound by Naruto's goodness, grows with each passing wish, it eventually breaks free when it gets too much for the Dragon Balls to handle, forming one of the Shadow Dragons. However, with Naruto's good soul still bound to it, the dragon actually becomes good as well as a result and joins with the Z Fighters. Also, due to Naruto's soul being an anchor for the dragon's, they don't need the Dragon Ball attached to exist. This is where the story diverges.

1\. The dragon is Naturon Shenron, brought about by wishing those killed by King Piccolo back to life (in canon it was to revive those killed by Majin Vegeta but I don't want to wait for the freaking Buu saga to start this idea). Like Naturon, Naruto can absorb bodies to become stronger and gain new attacks. However, Naruto won't use this as a cure all solution to his fights only as a last resort. For example, if he absorbs the body of a mole like canon Naturon did, Naruto will actually train in that form until he has it mastered, only switching bodies if there is no alternative. He'd even train his wimpy original form so he can actually do damage when not absorbing someone. He'd show up during the 23rd Martial Arts Tournament in order to challenge Piccolo. He winds up fighting and beating Shen/Kami as well as Piccolo, but ties with Goku. Naruto offers to absorb Piccolo to keep him out of trouble, but Goku sensing Piccolo isn't as evil as his father, lets him go like in canon.

2\. The dragon Naruto becomes is instead Rage Shenron, brought about by wishing Goku back to life for the Saiyan Saga. Like canon Rage, Naruto can use electric slime and also get bigger by absorbing electric energy. However, Naruto will be a bit more strategic about it and actually figure out more offensive strategies with his electric attacks, possibly using them to recreate Lightning Jutsu such as the Chidori. Also, this version of Rage will be aware of his weakness to water and ask Bulma for help with that. Bulma in turn will figure out a chemical that Naruto can use that will make him less combustible with water, and can even use the lightning from rainstorms to power himself up. He'd join up with Goku just as he's taking on Vegeta and help him beat the Saiyan Prince. I can even see Naruto using his ability to get bigger to match Vegeta's Great Ape form. 

_**CHALLENGE:**_ noun, a call to take part in a contest or competition. AKA, I'm asking if anyone else wants to do this story because I can't even though I want to.

 **Naruto the Shadow Dragon**

 **Part 2, Skip to Divergent Point if you read Part 1**

Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuriki to the Nine Tailed Fox, son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, reincarnation of the youngest child of the Sage of the Six Paths, and hero of the Fourth Shinobi War, was dying. After a long and difficult battle involving the blonde and his allies fighting numerous reanimated ninja, White Zetsu clones, Obito Uchiha, Madara Uchiha, and finally the demoness Kaguya, Naruto's body was finally succumbing to his injuries and exhaustion. It was only due to both his status, bloodline, and stubborn personality that he'd held on this long as most people would have succumbed long ago. Unfortunately, everyone has a limit and Naruto has both reached and surpassed his. With what little strength he had left, Naruto said farewell to all of his friends and companions, encouraging them to move on without him to bring about a better world and by the end of it all there wasn't a dry eye to be scene. Confident that the world was in capable hands, Naruto passed with no regrets, but he did give the world one last gift.

Utilizing his abilities as a sage, as well as the powers of Asura, Naruto's soul was able to live on after his body gave out. His disembodied soul then went around the planet, picking up any lingering negative energy that remained from the past few centuries of violence and bloodshed, taking them into himself to ensure that the world will be at peace at long last, fulfilling his role as the Child of Prophecy. Naruto's soul then took the negative energy along with itself deep within the Earth to make sure nothing else like the Shinobi World Wars ever happens again, and peace reigned throughout the world. Years passed, and the Elemental Nations prospered. No longer focusing on militant applications, the people were able to focus on other pursuits such as improving the technology in the world. Eventually the usage of both shinobi and chakra grew out of fashion in times of peace, and the Hidden Villages became bustling metropolises. The Bijuu, feeling that their presence may at one point disturb the peace the humans had, decided to go off to parts unknown and no one saw them for many, many years. People began to use technology more than chakra as it was easier and more available to use. Soon most forgot the old, violent ways with people only speaking of ninjas as myths and legends, only a few holding onto some of the shinobi way. While chakra itself fell out of use, people did still utilize the physical aspects of it from time to time, usually those heavily involved in the martial arts, but it gained a new name: ki.

Throughout all this, Naruto's soul remained nestled in the Earth, absorbing any buildups of negative energy to prevent it from harming humanity. Then, one day everything changed. A new guardian for the Earth, called Kami, had decided to make seven magical orbs called Dragon Balls that, when gathered, could grant a person one wish. He used powerful abilities to create the Dragon Balls, many of which were connected to the Earth itself. Said powers were like a beacon to Naruto's wandering soul like it was Nature Chakra, drawing it in like a magnet. As the Dragon Balls were created, the negative energy Naruto's soul was distributed amongst them but the majority held onto the ninja's soul as it was sucked into one of the orbs. Years pass, people using the wish granting abilities to make their fondest wish come true. Some wishes were for beneficial reasons, others evil, and others completely ridiculous. With each wish, the negative energy in them grew stronger, especially in the Dragon Ball containing Naruto and the majority of the negative energy. Finally, one day the negative energy in Naruto's Dragon Ball overflowed and took shape, which is where our story truly takes place.

 **(Divergent Point – Rage Shenron)**

It has been several days since Son Goku had died and his son Gohan was kidnapped by Piccolo. It had been such a pleasant start to the week too. Goku was going to meet up with his old friends Bulma, Krillin, Oolong, and Master Roshi, and then he'd show them his four year old son Gohan. Then a powerful and evil stranger appeared, claiming to be Goku's long lost brother Raditz! It was then that the savior of the planet learned of his origins, on how he was from a race of alien space pirates known as the Saiyans and that he was sent to Earth to conquer the planet for sale. Goku, being the noble hearted individual that he was, rejected his people's evil ways and fought his brother. The fight was brutal and short, with Goku having to team up with his arch rival Piccolo to defeat his brother and save his son. The victory had a cost, however, as Goku needed to sacrifice his own life so Piccolo could land the finishing blow. They then learned the startling news; Raditz's two partners, both much stronger than him, were on their way to Earth and would be there in one year's time!

With the looming threat in mind, Piccolo kidnapped Gohan to train him seeing that the child had a lot of untapped potential in the fight against Raditz. Goku himself had his body and soul taken to Other World after he died by Kami in order for him to train under the Martial Arts master King Kai. Goku's friends who could fight were taken to the Lookout to be trained by Kami and Mr. Popo. This left his other friends like Bulma and Master Roshi to gather the seven Dragon Balls so that they could wish Goku back to life in a year's time when the Saiyans arrived. However, unknown to the Z Fighters and their friends, having the wish granting orbs in such close proximity to each other for an extended period of time with their current level of negative energy allowed it to escape and take form, bringing the soul of a certain blonde shinobi along with it.

If one were to look into the back room of Roshi's Kame House, they would see that the seven Dragon Balls were flashing. The Five Star Ball was flashing brighter than the others, however, and the ball suddenly turned a blackish color before releasing a dark colored smoke. Once all the smoke was released, the ball returned to its normal orange color, but the smoke remained as it hovered over the balls. The smoke began to condense and take shape. Soon, a strange creature was standing over the Dragon Balls while looking around in confusion.

The being's body was largely a dark red color with his front being more of a cream color. It had a large birdlike beak for a mouth as well as a fin shaped horn on the top of his head with antenna on both sides of it. It's eyes are yellow in color and kind of beady, and it had short black claws on its hands and feet. The arms were long and slightly muscular, while the legs were barely visible as the creature's somewhat chubby body went all the way down to its feet, which were also birdlike in nature. There was also a thick reptilian tail poking out of its backside. The biggest, or should I say _smallest_ , feature of the newly born Shadow Dragon is that it was tiny, barely two feet in height including the horn.

Naruto looked around the dark room in confusion. 'Okay, I'm pretty sure I was dead until now, so how am I here? Is this a dream or the afterlife?' He then noticed the pile of "adult" magazines from Roshi's personal stash nearby and he sweatdropped. 'If this is the afterlife, it looks like Pervy Sage's version of it. But the most important question is…'

He then looked down at his tiny, chubby body and, after standing still for a few moments, fell onto his hands and knees with twin rivers of tears leaking from his eyes, 'WHY THE HELL AM I A FATASS PIPSQUEAK?!' he mentally shouted in despair.

Shaking himself out of his brief bout of depression, he then took a closer look at his body and wished the lights weren't so dim. The physical changes shocked him, but not nearly and much as when he gave himself a sharp pinch (both to see if he was dreaming and to make sure the body he was looking at was actually _his_ ), his skin stretched and snapped back into place like rubber. Feeling his skin, Naruto noticed that instead of flesh and bone, his body was made of some kind of elastic, slime like substance.

"Alright Naruto, think. You're in a dark room in unknown territory, you've been changed into some kind of slimy bird…reptile…thing, and you have no idea what happened to you. Try to remember so you can figure out what's going on," he murmured to himself to give himself a pep talk, momentarily starting at how his voice had changed and how it almost had an electric undertone to it.

Sitting as best he could given his current body's structure, Naruto closed his eyes and meditated like the Toad Sages taught him too to collect his thoughts. While he wasn't one for sitting still for too long, situations like this required it for a calm mind. It helped, as he was able to see flashes of what happened around the Dragon Balls over the years. Kami making them…those who wished upon them…Son Goku and his friends…Demon King Piccolo…and the recent trouble with the Saiyans (Naruto was initially freaked out about there being aliens, but he'd seen stranger during his time alive). He was amazed at how much the world had changed over the years, but saddened at the same time that by now all those he knew in life most likely passed on years ago. He put that to the back of his mind for now though as he knew none of his friends and family would want to see him mourn over the past for too long. Instead, Naruto thought of the future and what he should do from here.

Getting out of his meditative stance, the now tiny dragon started passing around the Dragon Balls while trying to figure out what to do. "I think the best thing for me to do is to help protect the planet when these…Saiyamen or whatever arrive. If I'm remembering this right, Son Goku's friends are going to revive him in a year with the Dragon Balls and train to fight the aliens, so I should team up with them and take this time to train myself," Naruto mused before he lifted a hand to his face and a look of concern appeared. "But…can I even fight like this? I'm not even sure if I can use chakra in this body, plus everything feels different from what I'm used to…"

Experimenting, the former ninja brought his hands into a familiar cross shaped symbol and cried out, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

He waited, but there wasn't even so much as a puff of smoke around. Giving a frustrated sigh, Naruto looked around. "Maybe if I can find a light switch or something I can see if I'm doing anything wrong," he thought out loud before he face palmed and groaned out, "…And I really need to stop talking to myself."

It took some searching, but Naruto was able to determine where the light switch was in the room. Unfortunately, he was too short to reach it so he hand to grab a small empty crate to stand on in order to reach it. It was lucky that it was late at night and everyone was asleep, otherwise someone might have heard light thumping and the occasional muttered curse coming from the storage closet in Kame House. Standing on his clawed tiptoes, Naruto was just able to reach the switch to turn the light on. However, this caused a small electrical spark to jump out of the switch and was drawn to Naruto's body. The slime like substance he was made of soaked it up like a sponge, and Naruto gave a small gasp as he felt a tingling feeling go through his body. It wasn't unpleasant, more like when Kurama's uncorrupted chakra would flood his system just in a much lower potency.

Naruto could feel a power flowing through his body now. It wasn't chakra, but somehow it felt…natural. Focusing the power to his hands while remembering some of his old chakra control techniques, Naruto saw small sparks of electricity leap off his hands like tiny fireworks. It reminded Naruto of Kakashi and Sasuke's Chidori, just much, much weaker.

'Did…did me getting shocked give me lightning powers or something?' Naruto thought before he noticed an outlet on the opposite wall. Giving a slight gulp, Naruto walked (More like waddled, man he was going to need to find a way to get back into shape. Now he was sorry for all the fat jokes he came up with for Choji as he silently cursed karma) over to the outlet and, after a moment's hesitation knowing that this was going to hurt a LOT if he was wrong, plunged his finger into the outlet. The results were almost instantaneous. The tingling feeling returned with a much greater force that almost overwhelmed the former blonde. As the house's electricity started to flow into Naruto's body, the lights around the house briefly flashed on before turning off again as the increasing power surge occurred. In several weeks' time, Roshi's electrical bill will increase threefold and he'll be forced to hold off on his internet porn for over a month due to this. Meanwhile back to Naruto, his body starts to feel truly reenergized, almost like he did before he died with the more energy he took in.

The changed ninja was so wrapped up in the feeling that he didn't notice two things. The first was that his finger that was in the outlet now took on a more liquid like appearance as it slipped into the holes of the outlet. The second was that after a few seconds of 'charging' himself, his body started to get bigger (1). His overall mass increased along with his height and general bulk, his dark red lightening to a lighter pink the bigger he got. Naruto noticed none of this even as he started to hunch over to keep in contact with the electrical source. Soon though, Naruto's crested head bumped into the ceiling and he jerked himself up into a standing position in surprise. Of course, due to him being much taller this caused Naruto to go literally head and shoulders through the ceiling of the closet like it was cheap toilet paper.

Thanks to his gelatinous state, Naruto wasn't hurt by the crash, but he was shocked out of his wits when he saw both what he'd done and that he was much bigger than the room he was currently in. The Shadow Dragon's (limited) mental capabilities tried to wrap his head around what happened, but just then he heard creaking coming from outside the door to the closet his lower body was still standing in. Hunching down so he could see into the room, Naruto saw that the lights had been turned on in the next room and shadows leaking through the cracks in the door indicated someone was coming in.

'Oh, _crap_!' Naruto mentally panicked, wondering how in the hell he was going to explain who he was, why he was in Kame House, and _why_ he suddenly broke the ceiling. His yellow eyes darted around, trying to find some place to hide but soon realized it was pointless because a) he still didn't have chakra and as a result couldn't use his ninja skills to hide and b) he was a fifteen foot tall jello…bird…lizard…thing. Just then, the door opened to reveal a short bipedal pig in pajamas (Oolong, if Naruto remembered correctly) was standing there while rubbing his eyes tiredly. The talking pork looked at Naruto's towering form with heavily lidded eyes before shrugging, turning around, and closing the door behind him. Naruto waited a few moments before letting out large sigh of relief, wiping some sweat from his antenna'd forehead. It was a good thing Oolong was still largely asleep. Now hopefully it would give him time to think of a way to get out of here without further breaking the house before –

There was the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps before the door swung open once again to show Oolong, eyes wide open and getting bigger as he took in Naruto's appearance, his face becoming the color of sour milk.

…before Oolong realized he wasn't dreaming and came back. Crap.

The pig let out a yell that could probably wake up people all the way on the mainland, startling Naruto causing him to take a step back. Unfortunately, Naruto's large feet stepped right on the Dragon Balls as he did so, and the magical orbs acted like marbles causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards. Naruto's extra mass made it so his falling body was like a wrecking ball and he crashed right through the wall behind him, making most of him lay outside the house.

'Well, at least I'm outside,' Naruto thought sarcastically as he slowly got up, the sand falling off him in a small waterfall. By the time he was standing, the other occupants of the house had come outside and were now staring up at him with surprised (and slightly fearful) expressions. The first was Oolong, looking ready to pee himself. The other was an old, bald human man who wore dark green sunglasses (despite it being nighttime), shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and strangely enough a giant turtle shell was strapped to his back. This man is Master Roshi. The final member was a floating blue cat whose name is Puar.

They all stood there for several tense minutes before Naruto broke the silence. "Umm, sorry 'bout the wall…and the ceiling. Totally my bad," he chuckled nervously while rubbing the back of his head.

The other three face vaulted at this before quickly composing themselves. Roshi stepped forward and coughed into his hand. "Urm…that's quite alright, I was planning on remodeling soon anyway. But I think the main question is though," and Naruto could swear he could see the suspicious glare sent his way behind the man's sunglasses, "is who are you and what are you doing here?"

Naruto plopped down on his (quite generous) rear end and said, "You all might want to take a seat, 'cause this is going to be a _looong_ story."

 **Several Hours Later**

The sun was starting to peak over the horizon as Naruto finished his tale. Puar was looking at him with a starry eyed expression, Master Roshi seemed contemplative as he calmly smoked a pipe, but Oolong had a look of pure skepticism. Ignoring the fact the former ninja could easily squash him like a bug, Oolong shot out, "Oh give me a break! You really expect us to believe that you were some kind of super powered ninja who saved the world thousands of years ago?! Not only that, but you've somehow been reborn from the Dragon Balls we had in the house? How gullible do you think – "

"I believe him," Roshi said abruptly, cutting off Oolong's rant.

The other three looked to the older man in surprise as he took another puff on his pipe before elaborating, "When I was a small lad, just starting martial arts myself, I was told a tale of a time long ago when the world was in a constant state of war fought by soldiers cloaked in shadow. It ended with a child who had carried a demon helped to bring peace at the cost of his own life. Few know of this story, and even fewer know the details – Naruto was it? (Naruto nods) – told. Added to the fact he was somehow able to get _inside_ our house despite his size in the middle of the night with none of us the wiser, and that he is able to tell us details about ourselves that only one who observed our actions closely could tell, lead me to believe everything he has told us is 100 percent true."

Naruto couldn't help but grin and extended a fist towards him. "Thanks old man!" Naruto sincerely stated. He had been worried for a while that none of them would believe him and he'd have to think of some kind of way to convince them.

Roshi huffed playfully at the 'old man' comment but extended his own fist anyway to tap Naruto's larger one. "No prob – "

However, the moment the two fists connected, electricity sparked and Roshi started jerking around wildly as he was shocked by hundreds if not thousands of volts of lightning. Naruto was so shocked (no pun intended) at what the simple fist bump did that he jerked his fist back, leaving behind a nice and crispy (but still alive) perverted martial arts master, his beard standing on end. Naruto jerked so hard that he once again fell backwards…landing right in the ocean.

 **BOOM!**

 **Scene Break**

Naruto laid down on a sofa in Kame House, shrunk down to his previous size and covered in both Band-Aids and burns. "Note to self: do not go near water," he groaned as he tried to sit up with little success.

The second Naruto's large and electricity filled body touched the water, it reacted similar to that of dropping a plugged in toaster in a bath. After being horribly shocked to the point it reminded him of being stabbed by Sasuke's Chidori, Naruto seemed to explode. When the smoke cleared, it showed him lying face up in the shallow water of the beach, blackened and coughing out a smoke ring at his original tiny size.

"Second note to self: do not fist bump a being made of electric slime," Roshi groaned in the chair beside him, equally burned and wrapped.

"Sorry about that. And I promise I'll help with the repairs," Naruto swore as he was finally able to get into a sitting position. He then gestured to the hole in the wall that was now covered in a large tarp courtesy of Puar.

"Don't worry about it, it'll take more than that to keep me down. Besides, I can ask Bulma for help with the repairs if she can come up with some sort of invention or something," Roshi said dismissively.

"Heh, be great if she could invent some way for me not to get shocked when I touch water. Kinda sucks. Though I guess it won't matter much until I learn how to control these new powers and body of mine," Naruto said with mirth as he looked at his hands before clenching them into fists. His eyes then widened in terror. "OH NO! What if I could get shocked touching ramen broth too?! I wouldn't be able to eat ramen anymore!" he cried in horror while clutching his head.

Roshi chuckled before wincing in pain. "Heh – cough – I'm sure we can think of something (2). So, what are you going to do now? The world is quite different from the one you came from."

Naruto calmed down and thought about Roshi's question for a moment. "Well…I want to help protect this world again. While it's not the same as the one I was raised in, it is the one me and my friends fought for. If I can, I want to be able to fight those Saiyan guys when they arrive. Only problem is I don't have chakra anymore and I'm just learning what all my body can do now. I'm afraid that if I fought, I'd make the situation worse as I am now."

Roshi considered this before coming to a decision. "If you want, I can help you out with training. While your powers seem slightly different from Ki, there's no reason I can't assist you in figuring out your powers. Who knows, I might even teach you a thing or two! I wasn't known as the World's Strongest for nothing you know!" he offered.

Naruto looked surprised at this before a grateful smile worked its way onto his beak like mouth. "You sure? I mean you barely know me, and in the time you have known me I've partially wrecked your house and shocked you," he asked.

"I'm sure. It's the older generation's duty to pass on their knowledge to the new generation, correct? Of course in your case it would the new generation teaching an ancient generation a thing or two," he chuckled at his own joke before continuing, "Besides, it has been a while since I've had a student and I find myself missing the experience. It'll be good teaching again, and I'm confident I'll have you ready to fight those aliens in six months rather than a year. But I must warn you, my training will not be easy. It could very well be the hardest thing you've ever done!"

Naruto grinned and proclaimed, "Bring it on old man! I'll take whatever you throw at me, Believe It!"

 **Time Skip (Several Months Later)**

Both Roshi and Naruto stood across from each other in a clearing. Naruto now standing at six feet tall, his preferred height, and looked ready to battle while Roshi himself was in a ready stance. Sparks suddenly leapt from Naruto's skin before he disappeared in a blur. Roshi himself followed shortly after. During the time Naruto was being taught under the aged master, he had learned a bit about how his new lightning powers worked and was able to shape them into attacks. In remembrance of both Sasuke and Kakashi, Naruto was able to make a replica of the Chidori and all its variants by using the lightning stored in his body. He was even able to replicate A's Lightning Armor in a way that his speed and strength drastically increased, which was good because without it he was slower than Lee when he got his leg broken and weaker than an Academy student. Naruto was even able to create some new attacks from his research like one he calls Dragon Thunder where the energy is collected into a solid form and is then shot out in the form of an electrical dragon.

Naruto was also able to figure out how to fight with his new body. As it turns out, his slimy form was very versatile in way of attack. For example, Naruto learned he could detach parts of his body that he can control with his thoughts. With a little ingenuity, Naruto was even able to use this ability to make clones of himself, albeit they were mindless replicas but still it was good to have a familiar technique. He also found his body was nearly impervious to damage when, during one of the spars with Master Roshi, the older man fired his signature Kamehameha Wave at him. Naruto was unable to dodge out of the way in time due to him still getting used to moving on squat legs, but instead of being blasted by the Ki attack (which was thankfully underpowered as it was just a practice spar), Naruto's body seemed to absorb the attack like a sponge, holding the energy inside of him. It took a little work on Naruto's part, but he was finally able to get the blast to exit his body which missed hitting a nearby Oolong by only a foot. After some practice, Naruto was able to figure out how to use this ability to reflect energy attacks back at his opponent almost instantly. He also learned how to shape his body a bit like clay, being able to form weapons and direct his mass into only certain limbs like the Partial Expansion Jutsu.

Finally, Naruto was able to learn a bit about Ki. While his body was more inclined to his electrical powers, Naruto found that he had the capability of using Ki to an extent. Roshi was able to teach him his Kamehameha Wave with little difficulty, and Naruto even explored mixing his Ki with lightning similar to what he did with the Rasengan. The results were an extremely powerful technique that Roshi had the Shadow Dragon promise to only use for emergencies. The perverted martial arts master also explained the theory behind using Ki for flight, that while he didn't know himself he knew the basic idea behind. Naruto was able to fly a bit after multiple falling accidents, but he wasn't fast nor graceful at it (3).

Back to the fight, Naruto and Roshi were clashing in the clearing at speeds so fast that one with untrained eyes would just see a slight disturbance in the area they were at. Roshi would use all manner of punch and kick combos while Naruto would prefer using his arms as his legs were not made for kicking. After several moments of this, the two came at a standstill with Naruto holding onto Roshi's kick with his left hand while his right fist was being blocked by both of Roshi's arms in a guard position. They held this pose, both trying to overpower the other before Naruto smirked.

The antenna on his forehead started to spark, causing Roshi to pale as Naruto called out, "Dragon Thunder!"

Roshi was barely able to dodge in time, but in order to do so he had to lower his guard slightly and in doing so allowed Naruto to take some of the Electric Slime in his chest to form a third fist that got the man right in the face. The two broke apart and skidded back several feet before coming to a rest. They looked at each other for a minute before Roshi relaxed his position, followed by Naruto, and the two bowed to each other.

"That was very good, Naruto. You are quickly on your way to becoming one of the strongest fighters on the planet. I'd say another couple months and you'll be ready to fight the Saiyans when they arrive," Roshi commented as he wiped some of the blood from his mouth.

Naruto smiled proudly before asking, "So what's next for the training old man?"

Roshi then looked at his latest student seriously and said, "It is getting to the point where I can't teach you much more myself. I would recommend you go find one of my other former students like Krillin or Yamcha and train with them. I'll take you to Bulma's place in the city where she can contact one of them, because from what I heard they all got back from their own training with Kami the other day. Once there, you might also want to talk to Bulma, because I talked to her and she said she had some things that she believes will help you out."

Naruto, while surprised and somewhat saddened to leave the man who had been willing to teach him for all this time, knew he had a point that he needed to up his training if he wanted to be strong enough to defend this world. So with that, the two got on Roshi's Capsule airplane and took off towards Bulma's place. While traveling, Naruto couldn't help but smirk to himself.

It looks like the Number One Unpredictable Ninja was making a comeback!

1\. Instead of just surrounding his body in a shell of electric slime, I made it so it's Naruto's body itself that absorbs the electricity.

2\. Some of the things Bulma will invent to help Naruto: a chemical that makes him water resistant so he won't get shocked every time it rains, a Capsule that can be used to store his extra Electric Slime, and a portable generator for when he's not close to any major source of electricity that is strong enough to power two cities.

3\. Way I see it, the Shadow Dragons probably all had some level of Ki to them, but most preferred using their elemental attacks or trickery to fight. Naruto, being the practical ninja that he is, will train in all forms of attack so he can keep up with stronger opponents.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** Blah blah yadda yadda, don't own it.

 **AN:** Having finished both 'Battle of the Gods' and 'Revival of F' not too long ago, the inspiration to write this challenge hit me like a sledgehammer. Not that writing this was easy, mind you, as some of the dialogue just didn't want to come easy which is why it took so long to write this. Anyway, the plot goes like this:

Naruto passes away after living a full life, and as a reward for his services in bringing peace to his world and ending the cycle of hatred was granted the title God of Heroes. Basically, he'll be the polar opposite of Beerus and just as strong. He'll also take the appearance of his prime at 16 and will have his own helper/teacher like Whis.

After several millennia, Naruto has taught several powerful heroes but for the past few centuries no one of particular interest has caught his attention. Then, he'll hear that someone has arrived on King Kai's planet for the first time in forever and Naruto decides to go investigate. There, he'll encounter a certain Saiyan from Earth. Sensing that Son Goku is something of a kindred spirit, Naruto offers to train Goku as well.

Basically, Naruto is going to teach Goku and maybe even get him to go Super Saiyan before Namek. Then, after Namek Naruto would stick around and train the Z Fighters from time to time. Basically, he'll be a nicer, more helpful Beerus but won't try to get involved too much in order to let the new generation of Heroes have their moment. It'll be basically a legitimate reason to do a godlike Naruto story without the usual BS that accompanies it.

Remember, as a _**CHALLENGE**_ , this story won't be completed by me but by whoever adopts it. So please, if either you or someone you think would be interested in writing this story would like to take it up, please let me know either by review or PM. In the meantime, enjoy!

 **God of Heroes**

Naruto yawned as he arched his back, getting it to crack in several places. He mumbled to himself as he got out of his plush bed and made his way to the bathroom on the other side of the bedroom. Once inside, he took some water out of the sink and splashed it on his face, the cold liquid helping to eliminate any remaining drowsiness from his system. Blinking his eyes free of water, Naruto got a good look at himself in the mirror and couldn't help but grin. All these millennia later and he still looked as he did when he was sixteen. That personally was one of the major perks of becoming a god. It also made him nostalgic on how he came to be where he was now.

Several decades after defeating Kaguya and bringing peace to the Elemental Nations, Naruto had passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 109. Expecting to find himself in the Pure Realm, the former Seventh Hokage was surprised to find him face to face with Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki in the outer space like place the two had first met. The Sage had greeted him warmly and informed the deceased ninja that thanks to his actions in life and for ridding the world of its cycle of hatred, Naruto had been given the opportunity to have god status after passing on. At first the whiskered man was hesitant, feeling that accepting this title would prevent him from seeing his friends and family in the afterlife, but the teacher of Ninshu assured him that with his new title and abilities, Naruto would be free to not only explore all parts of the spirit world, but that of the living world as well. After hearing all the pros and cons his new position would entail, Naruto decided to accept and as soon as he did, his old man's body regained the form it had when he was in his prime and had been that way ever since.

Eons has passed since then, and Naruto did many things to keep himself busy and to live up to his new role as the God of Heroes. One of his primary duties was to help train new heroes from every few generations if they proved worthy enough so they'd be able to face any threats to their world. And while he did operate throughout the universe, Naruto had most of his focus on his home planet, Earth, to ensure the peace he fought so hard for and that his teachers dreamed of would persist. Naruto trained many students who lived up to the title of hero over the years, some who had made legends in their own regard. The blond god watched as the world he grew up on continued to evolve and change. A few centuries after his ascension, the world eventually grew out of and forgot the old Shinobi System. While Naruto was saddened by this, he did consent that the system had become obsolete with the peaceful environment and rise in technology.

However, even though the world forgot about chakra and its Hidden Villages, people learned alternative fighting techniques. These new techniques required the use of just Yang Chakra, or Ki as it was now called. Ki, while lacking the versatility of pure Chakra, was easier to access without the usage of chakra points (which had grown dull after generations of inactivity) and had strong offensive power. Naruto himself learned how to use Ki a while back, but preferred the usage of chakra believing it to have more potential than Ki and being the easier of the two for him to use. Slowly, over time, the number of people who used Ki also began to diminish thanks to a lack of need, and the number of heroes from Earth Naruto trained diminished to a crawl. And while he still kept an eye on things, the past couple of centuries have been pretty lax.

The blonde had taken to napping on occasion to help pass the time when he wasn't training or helping others train. He didn't nap for centuries like that lazy bastard Beerus, only a decade or two was usually enough to satisfy him. Even after all these years, Naruto still hated being inactive. It was from one of these naps that Naruto had just awoken from, and he was eager to see how the world had changed in the last decade. Quickly changing out of his pajamas (that he kept the same style from when he was a boy), Naruto put on his orange and black kimono that had the Uzumaki Spiral in the back, his sandals, and finally his Leaf headband that he tied to keep his wild blonde hair back (it had grown longer again, almost to his father's length thanks to a decade of not getting cut). It was a bit more formal than he would usually prefer, but the ninja turned god knew he had a certain image that he needed to at least try and uphold, even though he was still not one for ceremonious garb. Morning preparations done, Naruto disappeared from the bathroom and reappeared in the dining room in a flash of light.

"Ah, I see you've awoken Lord Naruto. Right on schedule as usual," a calm voice said. Standing next to the table was a blue skinned humanoid man that had wavy white hair, was garbed in formal attire, and was carrying a ornamental staff that had a glowing green orb floating on its head.

Naruto chuckled before saying in an exasperated tone, "You know how I feel about that 'Lord' stuff, Key (1). Honestly, if I didn't know better I'd say you did it just to annoy me."

The now named Key just smiled and said in a voice filled with humor, "Oh forgive me, my lord. I will correct my grammar at once. I live to serve, after all."

The two looked at each other for a minute before breaking out into laughter. After calming down, Naruto whipped a stray tear from his eye and said, "Ah man, I never get tired of that bit. Honestly though, it's great to see you Key. I hope things weren't too boring while I was sleeping? It must suck not being able to sleep yourself."

Key waved his hand in a dismissive manner, "Think nothing of it, Naruto. After millennia one does find ways to entertain oneself even without the need for sleep. Now, I take it you'll have the usual for breakfast?"

Naruto's smile turned into an eager smirk as he sat down at the dining table and picked up a pair of chopsticks there. "Lay it on me," he stated to his instructor/attendant/friend.

Key tapped his staff on the ground and the long table was covered in numerous bowels, each filled to the brim with ramen. "I've taken the liberty of introducing ramen to over 500 different star systems, Naruto, and as a result there are now over 278 new flavors for you to try," Key informed the blonde, who already had a third of the bowls emptied and stacked as he hungrily tore into another one.

"So *munch* has there been any *slurp* new developments while I was asleep?" Naruto asked as he continued to shovel noodles into his mouth.

Key hummed while looking into the orb on his staff. "Well, about five years ago the inhabitants of Yardrat have successfully been able to replicate your teleportation technique using Ki, though they need to locate another Ki signature to latch onto."

"Hm, so it'll be kind of like a Hirashin technique only using Ki signatures instead of seals. Interesting," Naruto mused as he worked on his last five bowls. "Good for them though, the Yardrats are good people and its always nice to help out."

Key continued, "Let's see now…oh, there have been several planets laid claim to by the Planet Trade Organization."

Naruto frowned at that. The PTO had been getting on his nerves for quite some time now with that Cold Family leading them in purging planets of its inhabitants for sale to the highest bidder. "I swear, if someone doesn't step up to those ice lizards and their goons soon, I might have to get involved myself," he scowled as he placed the last bowel in the pile of dirty dishes.

Key teleported the dishes away to be cleaned with a wave of his staff. "Perhaps so, but you'll need to wait a bit longer before you're allowed to interfere. Hopefully a hero will come soon that can do something before then."

Naruto grumbled at this. It was one of the restrictions he hated about his new position. While he could train prospecting heroes to battle threats, he was unable to get involved himself unless the threat was too big for anyone else in the universe to handle. And given that most of the people who try to go against Frieza end up dead before Naruto can reach them, it might soon come to that. He had high hopes for that Bardock guy from Planet Vegeta, but even he died after one blow. Naruto appreciated that kind of moxie though, and had trained the Saiyan for a few years before allowing his soul to pass on into the afterlife. At least if Bardock was ever revived, he'd be able to give hell to any foe he'd face.

Wanting to get his mind off things, Naruto gestured for Key to go on. "And this just happened recently, but someone was able to get to King Kai's planet after traveling Snake Way."

Naruto leaned back and had an impressed look on his face. "No shit? Huh, feels like forever since someone's actually been able to make it to King's planet. So who's the lucky one to get to suffer through his horrible jokes?"

Key seemed to focus for a moment and reported, "Apparently it's the Earth born Saiyan Son Goku, Naruto. He died in a fight against his older brother when said brother tried to force him to massacre the Earth's population by kidnapping his son. The guardian of Earth spoke with King Yemma and convinced him to allow Goku to train with King Kai, as two more Saiyans are to arrive in six months' time in order to destroy the Earth."

Naruto frowned as he processed this information. "Goku, huh? I think that's the name of Bardock's kid when he landed on Earth. Wasn't he also the one who defeated that Red Bow Army right before I took my nap?"

"Red Ribbon Army sir, and correct on both accounts. In addition, he was able to defeat Demon King Piccolo and his reincarnation a few years afterwards. Quite an impressive feat considering how low the number of threats on Earth are," Key mentioned.

Naruto hummed over this for a minute before standing up and saying, "C'mon Key, we're heading out to King Kai's planet. I think I just found my next student!"

 **King Kai's Planet, several minutes later**

Son Goku panted as he tried to catch King Kai's pet monkey Bubbles. Normally, this task would be a piece of cake for the Earth raised Saiyan, but due to the small planet having a gravity ten times that of Earth, he was finding himself unable to get even close to the monkey. He wouldn't give up though; his family and friends were counting on him and if catching Bubbles was the first step in doing so, then by golly he was gonna catch him! Goku was just about to resume his chase when he noticed King Kai let out a gasp near his house. The blue skinned man was staring away from him into the space surrounding his planet with a look of surprise and awe on his face.

"King Kai? What is it?" Goku asked, deciding to take a small break from his training.

The man turned his sunglass covered eyes on the fighter and said in a serious tone, "Goku, make yourself presentable. The God of Heroes is approaching."

Goku cocked his head in confusion. "God of Heroes? Who's that?"

"That'd be me," a voice said from behind him. Turning around, Goku saw Naruto and Key standing not too far away from where they were. Naruto turned up his eyes in a smile and raised a hand in greeting. "Yo!" he called.

Goku stared at the young looking man and his blue skinned companion in wonder. 'I didn't even feel them approach! Not only that, but I can't even feel their energy coming from them. Wait…I do feel something from them, but I can't get a good read on it. It's like staring into space itself, you can see the stars and planets in the distance, but you can't even begin to grasp the immensity of it! Just who are these guys?'

Naruto turned his attention to King Kai and said casually, "S'up King. You're looking the same as ever, but I love what you've done to the place. I even see you have a road on the planet now, on all ten feet of it. Must be great on the gas mileage here," he joked at the end.

King Kai bowed his head and fumbled over his words, "A-ah, Lord Naruto sir! It's an honor to have you on my tea. Can I get you some home?" realizing his mistake, the Kai corrected, "I mean, it's an honor to have you at my home, can I get you some tea?"

"Relax King, I'm not gonna blow you up or something. That's Beerus' job," Naruto said with a laugh. Turning to Son Goku, Naruto smiled and said, "And while I appreciate the offer, I'm actually here to meet your new student."

Goku's eyes went wide and he pointed to himself. "Me?" he asked.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "No, the monkey. Yes you!"

Regaining his composure somewhat, King Kai questioned, "What do you need to meet with Goku about, Lord Naruto?"

The whiskered deity rolled his eyes again and said, "First off, enough with the 'Lord' stuff, okay? Secondly, I heard about him being the first person to reach your planet in years and I got curious on the guy who was able to make it. That, and I actually have kept a close eye on our awesomely dressed friend here for some years now and figured it was high time we finally meet." Naruto finished by gesturing to the man's outfit. After all, someone who wore that much orange was okay in his books!

"Um," Goku raised his hand like a school child and got everyone else's attention, "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but who are you? Also, what do you mean you've been keeping an eye on me?"

Naruto plopped down on the grass while Key remained standing and gestured for Goku to do the same, which the orange clad Saiyan complied. "Well, those answers actually kind of go hand in hand. As King of the Terrible Puns mentioned, I'm the God of Heroes for this universe. Name's Naruto, by the way. Any who, what that means is that I keep my eye out across the universe and see if there are any beings who have the potential to become true heroes. And if they are able to meet the necessary standards, I keep tabs on them for if they ever need my help. If that time comes, I will either step in myself to fight with them or help train the hero(s) to be able to combat the threat themselves. The former is a very rare occurrence and will only be done if there is absolutely no alternative. The latter is more common and actually is why I'm here now," he finished with a mischievous grin and pointed a finger at Goku. "So, how's about it? Want to become a student of mine?"

The other two occupants of the tiny planet were, understandably, shocked. "What?" they asked near simultaneously. Goku followed with a "Why?"

Naruto explained, "Well y'see, you've caught my attention ever since you defeated that Red Bow-"

"Ribbon," Key corrected.

"-Ribbon Army, and have only continued to impress me over the years with your fighting against King Piccolo and his progeny. Your latest fight against your brother where you sacrificed yourself to save your son and the Earth only solidified my opinion on your hero status. And with those two Saiyans coming in a few months, I thought: This'd be the perfect time to take on a new student. So how about it?"

Goku seemed hesitant. "I dunno…I mean I was supposed to train under King Kai, and the way everyone talked about him made it seem like he's my best shot at training for the Saiyans."

King Kai leaned in and whispered into the man's ear, "Goku, I feel you should take this opportunity. While you would definitely improve under my teachings, Lord Naruto is many times my better and has more strength then you can possibly imagine! He'd be able to crush pretty much anyone in the galaxy with the twitch of his pinky finger!"

"He's that powerful? Wow, I'm actually nervous if I'd have to fight him!" Goku whispered back.

"Well, if you train with me Goku you'd get a chance to see how it'd be to fight me in training," Naruto interrupted, scaring the crap out of the two who didn't know about his sharp hearing. He then turned to King Kai, "And that's an interesting way you view me, KK, if not inaccurate. You got me confused with Beerus, because the whole crushing thing with a finger is more his shtick. Great way to talk me up though, so kudos."

"A-ah, forgive me, Lord Naruto, I spoke out of turn," King Kai stammered.

Naruto waved it off, "Seriously, its fine. Though I'd appreciate it if you'd drop the whole 'Lord' crap. I'm not that egotistical."

Key spoke up, "Didn't you once try having your birthday marked as 'Intergalactic Ramen Day?'"

Naruto quickly shushed his partner in a frantic manner, not wanting that particular incident to be made public knowledge. He was still catching crap from the other deities for that! Coughing into his fist, Naruto turned back to Goku and King Kai. "Back on topic. So anyway Goku, you don't need to worry about the whole training thing. I'm sure in the six months until the Saiyans arrive on Earth, both me and King Puns A lot over there will be able to teach you everything we know. And while I may be stronger than him, King Kai has knowledge on techniques that even I can't do. Especially when it comes to Ki."

Goku cocked his head, "While this definitely sounds like something I'd wanna do, am I even going to have time to train with both you and King Kai? After all, the Saiyans are supposed to be arriving in about six months and I'm going to need every second to focus on getting stronger. Wouldn't training under two teachers make that a lot harder?"

Naruto gave a reassuring smile as he motioned to Key. "Don't worry about that. My friend here has a unique ability to slow time to a crawl for a decent amount of time, so we'd be able to turn a week's worth of training into several months," Naruto informed him while Key nodded his head in agreement.

Eyes widening in realization, Goku said, "Hey, that sounds like the Hyperbolic Time Chamber at Kami's Lookout!"

"Ah yes, I remember that place. I, along with several other powerful beings, decided long ago to combine our unique talents in creating a dimension existing for the sole purpose of pushing others past their limits. I'm glad to see it's still functional (2)," Key happily informed the Earthborn Saiyan.

After absorbing this information, Goku grinned excitedly, "Alright then! If that's the case then I have nothing to lose. So when should we do this?"

Naruto spoke up, "Well, if its okay with both you and King Kai, I'll stick around to observe your training for a few months and when you both feel satisfied with your training I'll take you back to my place for my own personal training. We should have you more than strong enough to fight the meat head and the walking, talking Napoleon complex in no time."

"Huh?" Goku questioned at that last part.

"You'll understand when you see the Saiyans. Anyway, I think you were doing some training when we arrived, so don't let us hold you up, 'kay," Naruto stated as he went to sit out of the way of Goku's training grounds, a chair made of soft earth rising out of the ground to accommodate him while Key settled for floating up into the air for a bird's eye view.

Goku felt excited as he restarted his training in earnest. While he couldn't get a real good feel for Naruto's true power, if King Kai, one of the best known martial arts masters in the galaxy, had such high amounts of respect for him then he must be good. Plus, the young looking god's general relaxed behavior spoke of someone with years of experience with power to match. Not only that, but the whiskered god was walking around on a planet with 10 times Earth's gravity as easily as breathing. Goku felt that if he was trained by Naruto, there was a very strong chance on him actually winning against the Saiyans! While King Kai had admitted that the Saiyans were stronger than him, the blue Kai treated Naruto like he was on a whole different playing field then the Saiyans. If he was to train under Naruto, though, he'd need to complete King Kai's training first. With that added motivation in mind, Goku chased after Bubbled with renewed vigor.

 **Five Months, Two Weeks Later (One week until Saiyans arrive)**

Goku's vision swam for a minute as he regained his bearings from Naruto's teleportation technique. Once the vertigo stopped, he took in his surroundings. The blonde former shinobi had transported himself, Key, and Goku to what looked like a lush forest that had a beautiful clearing in its center. In the clearing he was three training posts as well as what looked to be a large memorial stone in the background (3). And judging from the strain on his body, the gravity here was around the same as it was on King Kai's planet. The Earth raised Saiyan then had his attention brought back to his new teacher as he started talking to him.

"So this place is the training field where most of your lessons will take place. Since you've gotten used to training under intense gravity, one of the things I'm going to do here is increase the gravity every time you get used to the new one, like so," and with that, Naruto placed his palm on the ground where what looked like intricate writing spread from his hand. The writing disappeared into the earth, when suddenly the gravity surrounding them doubled in strength, causing Goku to grunt from the effort while Naruto and Key didn't even look like they noticed. "The next thing I'm planning on teaching you is some different battle strategies and techniques I've learned over the years. And since I've actually trained a couple Saiyans in my time, I have some ideas on how to teach you. Before all that though, I guess I should show you the rest of the area, neh?" turning to his friend, Naruto asked, "Hey Key, do you mind starting your time slow down thingy?"

While scoffing at his technique being referred to as a 'thingy', Key nevertheless complied as he tapped his staff on the ground, causing a large blue dome to cover the surrounding area and stretch on for miles. "There, now I can hold this up for roughly a year which is about a week in real time," Key informed them.

Naruto shot the man a thumbs up before leading Goku down a path into the forest. When they reached the end, a large building stood in another clearing. In was oriental in style with a large kanji for 'Fire' written on the front. Entering what he was told was Naruto's home, Goku could only stare as the building looked even bigger on the inside if you could believe that. Naruto wrapped an arm around the Saiyan's shoulder as he gave Goku the grand tour. It was a fairly luxurious, if somewhat Spartan home that had all the basic necessities but wasn't overly decorated. Near the end of the tour, Goku notice a hallway with nine huge doors on either side, each one numbered 1-9 (4).

Naruto noticed Goku looking and grinned, "I see you've seen my roommates' rooms."

Curious as to who would be a god's roommate, Goku asked him to which the blonde laughed, "Well, they're nine beings I met back when I was way younger and after I ascended to godhood I decided to take them with me. They're all super strong in their own right, but they don't really like being disturbed all that much. Though I do plan on introducing you to them at some point. Who knows, maybe they'd even offer to train you a bit yourself? I have a feeling 'Number 4' would be especially interested in you," he finished with an impish grin.

Feeling both excited, nervous, and curious, Goku followed his new teacher further into the building wondering just how much stronger training under the God of Heroes would make him. Little did he know that there would be far reaching consequences of this training trip, but whether for good or ill has yet to be decided.

1\. Key's name is based off the fact that Whis' name was, according to Toriyama, named after whiskey like Beerus was named after beer. So I decided that Naruto's attendant would be Whis' twin brother and would finish the name.

2\. I figured since Whis has the ability to turn back time by three minutes, it'd make sense for one of his siblings to have time altering powers. In Key's case it is slowing down time to a crawl. It'd not only allow Goku and Naruto some extra training time, but also give some insight into the creation of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

3\. Team 7's training grounds. I figured Naruto would be one for nostalgia after all this time. And you'll notice Naruto's home is based off the Hokage's Tower.

4\. Give you nine guesses who these rooms belong to.


End file.
